


The Foxes Dance

by Kurai3



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Gen, Kitamoto being an awesome friend, Kitamoto knowing about Yokai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-02-24
Packaged: 2018-09-26 13:59:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9901775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kurai3/pseuds/Kurai3
Summary: Kitamoto saw it once before, when he was a child. The dance of foxes, Hiei had called it. Hiei was the only one who talked to him, who even approached him, at the festival. Foxes surrounded him on all sides, some with wings, some with nine tiles, some with burning red eyes that look like fire.





	

The Foxes Dance

 

Kitamoto saw it once before, when he was a child. The dance of foxes, Hiei had called it. Hiei was the only one who talked to him, who even approached him, at the festival. Foxes surrounded him on all sides, some with wings, some with nine tiles, some with burning red eyes that look like fire. He had known back then what they were, demons were a story passed down in his family for generations. They were an exorcist family that had long since broken apart and forgotten the old ways but the stories were never forgotten. How once, a very long time ago, one of their ancestors had made a deal with a Yokai. That as generations passed they would lose the sight, but they would always be able to tell a fox apart. Each child born would be able to sense fox Yokai, see them for what they really were, but never be able to see any other Yokai. Hiei was Kitamoto’s fox, just as much as he was her human. 

 

****

 

The next time he sees her they have both grown. He is a high school student now, taller and broader in the shoulders than he was before. Her human form was also taller, with longer hair and sparkling eyes. Her fox form, the form he knows only he can see, has gained a tail and is darker now than she was before. A coal black rather than ash gray. They don’t talk, not when Kitamoto is at school and has so much more to worry about. Because Natsume is acting jumpy again and the only time he ever seems to truly calm down these days is when his cat is around. Kitamoto isn’t stupid. He knows that Natsume can probably see what his ancestors could once see, what he would be able to see if his ancestor hadn’t made a deal with a fox. He knows that Natsume’s cat probably isn’t a cat at all, especially going on Hiei’s down right hostile reaction to him the first time round, and that whenever Natsume suddenly chokes up, or collapses, or runs off to who knows where it is probably the doing of a Yokai. What he doesn’t know is why. It’s strange to see so much Yokai activity around anyone that isn’t exorcist but Natsume seems to draw trouble to him like a plague. 

 

But then he overhears something he shouldn’t and things just start clicking into place. 

 

“Another small-fry after the Book of Friends,” Natsume’s cat states, as Kitamoto hides himself from view close enough to hear but not so close he'll draw attention. Hiei is waiting at a nearby shrine, like Kitamoto had asked her to so do as not to stand out, but he endeavours to ask her about this strange book that attracts Yokai later on. When he does eventually get round to asking Hiei’s hackles rise and she lets out a feral growl that Kitamoto hasn’t heard in years. 

 

“Yes, I know of that book. It belonged to girl named Natsume Reiko. She’d challenge Yokai to a fight or game and when they lost she’d make them write their name down in the book. It let her control them, let's whoever holds it control them. I don’t think your twig would do that though. He’s probably returning the names. For that you need the breath and saliva of Reiko’s bloodline. Chances are that kids the only one left who can do it,” Hiei explains and the weight of that lands heavily on Kitamoto. He of all people knows how it feels to be burdened by the decisions of your ancestors. “You’re going to help him aren’t you?” she mutters and it’s not really a question because she already knows his answer. 

 

“Anyway I can,” Kitamoto replied with a smile that has Hiei sighing knowingly. 

 

After that Kitamoto takes it upon himself to guard Natsume, without the other boy knowing about it of course, and even Hiei joins in guard duty from a distance. Kitamoto can tell when Natsume catches a glance of her between the trees because he will tense, his shoulders rising as the rest of his body hunched. Natsume could see Yokai then, that'd make things easier for Kitamoto. If Natsume could see Hiei then the fox wouldn’t have to disguise herself as a human to get close. Occasionally Kitamoto will give her a brief nod, or when they are alone he will tell her she’s doing a good job and to keep it up. He can’t tell if Hiei actually likes Natsume or not but she will keep protecting him as long as Kitamoto asks her to. That he knows to be true. 

 

****

 

They meet Matoba a few days after Kitamoto and Hiei take up guard duty. He is leaning against a wall a little up their path, smiling serenely. Kitamoto may not know the man himself but he recognises the eye patch he wears, a seal to ward off Yokai, as a ward of the Matoba clan. With a determined look on his face Kitamoto placed his hand on the small of, a now pale, Natsume’s back and marches straight past. 

 

“Excuse me, may I have a word with Natsume Takashi?” the man asked and Natsume opened his mouth as if to answer but Kitamoto beats him to it. He turns to face the man as Nishimura continued to lead Natsume away along with Tanuma and Taki. 

 

“Sorry but we're kind of busy. Do you mind leaving us alone?” he stated, a command more than a request. He feels more than sees Hiei come to stand beside him, one of her tails wrapping comforting around his leg. 

 

Matoba’s eyes dart to Hiei once before turning to Kitamoto’s face. Kitamoto raised an eyebrow at him, daring him to say something. 

 

“That’s very interesting. You're attached to a Yokai,” the Matoba stated with a grin. 

 

“Her name is Hiei. She doesn’t take kindly to threats.. .against me or my friends,” Kitamoto claimed with a glare. 

 

“You can see her? So can you also see Yokai, like your blonde friend?” the man asked and Kitamoto clenches his fists at the mention of Natsume because this man should never, ever talk about Natsume. Hiei senses his distress and her hackles raise, a growl ripping through her throat as her body presses to Kitamoto’s side. 

 

“No. I can’t see Yokai, well not most of them. Just Hiei and other foxes. If you’re an exorcist you should know about that right?” he asked. 

 

“Oh, that’s interesting. You're a descendant of the Kyubi clan. So that fox is your little pet.”

 

“She’s not my pet, Matoba. Come near Natsume again and I'll set Hiei loose on you, you can believe that,” Kitamoto stated before walking past Matoba with Hiei at his heels. Natsume looks concerned as Kitamoto returned to their group, his face ashen, but Kitamoto just smiles and pretends not to see the fox at his feet. That will only freak Natsume out more and Kitamoto wants to help Natsume, not terrify him. 

 

The next few days after that meeting Hiei follows Kitamoto around a little more closely, going so far as to sit outside his classroom door at school. He knows she'll kill in an instant to protect him so he isn’t worried about what will happen to him, he’s just worried about what will happen to Natsume if someone doesn’t protect him. So Kitamoto will protect him, Hiei at his side, from anything he can. That includes any brats that try to hurt Natsume with their words. 

 

“Hey look, it's the lying freak!” a voice called, causing Natsume to tense like he had those first few weeks after transferring. Their whole group paused at that, Taki and Tanuma moving closer to Natsume while Kitamoto and Nishimura turn on the group of high schoolers. 

 

“Can we help you?” Kitamoto questioned, Nishimura a silent force at his back. 

 

“Who the hell are you?” one of the brats, the leader by the looks of things, asked and Nishimura stepped up to talk. 

 

“We're Natsume's friends, and you can’t talk to him like that,” his best friend claimed. 

 

“What, it’s true! He’s just some lying freak who made stuff up to get attention! He was always going on about how he could see things other people couldn't, the weirdo!” the lead boy exclaimed, Kitamoto narrowing his eyes bet letting Nishimura do the talking. 

 

“What what do you know about him. You hardly sound like you were friends!” Nishimura replied, just as angrily. 

 

Kitamoto saw the boy open his mouth to snap back another retort but stops when a familiar presence appears at Kitamoto’s back. Kitamoto can tell who it is just from her presence and the pure white the boys face suddenly goes. He knows they must look terrifying, Hiei at their back and her eyes ablaze with the light of foxes that can scare off Yokai and humans a like. 

 

“This...this isn’t over!” the kid muttered, casting one more terrified look in Hiei’s direction before running off with his group in tow. Nishimura is heading off to Natsume and the others before the group has even turned their back but Kitamoto watches them until they are out of sight. With the threat gone Hiei backed down, letting Kitamoto take the lead as they headed for Natsume’s group. 

 

“You okay Natsume?” he asked, his fox a silent shadow at his shoulder that offers comfort without words. 

 

“I...I’m fine. You didn’t have to do that,” Natsume muttered, a blush on his face. 

 

“Yes we did. You're our friend and we didn’t even know who those guys were,”  Kitamoto replied simply. 

 

“We don’t know your friend either,” Tanuma pointed out and Kitamoto grinned. 

 

“That’s true enough. Guys this is Hiei, I've known her since I was a baby but we’ve been separated for a while. She recently came back to town,” he explained, Hiei nodding her head to them in greeting. 

 

When they met Natori, Kitamoto stood by the side with Tanuma and Natsume as Taki and Nishimura fell into an awed stupor. Taki is the first to break, asking for an autograph almost immediately with Nishimura not far behind. They were heading to Tanuma’s house when Natori appeared, smiling a to fake smile and waving at Natsume like he’s known him for years. If he’s honest with himself Kitamoto is a little jealous at that. Hiei is once again in fox form, a little behind the group in case she needs to ward off an attack from behind. Kitamoto can see Natori glancing at her out the corner of his eye but he makes no comment, this is not the time or place to discuss such things. Instead they all make their way inside Tanuma’s house and settle in the spacious meeting room they usually talk in. Hiei lays herself down beside him, her tails wrapping around his back like a hug. Even as they chat and trade stories with each other Kitamoto can see the concerned glances Natsume and Natori send him and Hiei. 

 

Nishimura is the first to leave and Kitamoto knows things can be discussed know. The only people left are those who can see Yokai, or know of their existence, that much he is sure of. Before any of them can decide to also leave, before Natsume can make the escape Kitamoto can see him planning, he flicks his wrist a little, out of sight, and Hiei rises to her feet. Natsume’s eyes dart to her, wide and almost terrified, while Natori tenses up and even Tanuma must sense something as he holds a hand to his head.

 

“Guys what’s wrong?” Taki asks, trying not to give away to much as she casts a wary glance at Kitamoto. 

 

“We need to talk,” Kitamoto suddenly states and all eyes turn to him. Once he has everyone’s attention, he raises his hand and clicks his fingers. Hiei instantly settles herself once more, Kitamoto running his hands through her fur. 

 

“K...Kitamoto?” Taki stutters, unsure what was happening since she couldn’t see Hiei’s Yokai form. 

 

“Hiei,” he muttered, the fox rolling her eyes but transforming into her human form anyway. Taki starts at that but doesn’t shy away which is a good sign.

 

Hiei’s eyes pass over each of the humans in turn, eyeing them up and weighing their power the way he has seen her do a dozen times before. 

 

“Kitamoto what is this? Is Hiei...is Hiei a Yokai?” Tanuma questions and Kitamoto smiles softly. 

 

“Yes. She’s a fox...she’s my fox. She’s been watching over me for a long time now, even when she wasn’t at my side,” he told them as Hiei rested her head on her knees. 

 

“You can see Yokai?” Natsume whispered and Kitamoto sighed. 

 

“Not exactly. I can see foxes...only foxes. I’m a descendant of the Kyubi clan.” The name he mentions has Natori narrowing his eyes as he levels Kitamoto with a glare. 

 

“How can that even be possible, the Kyubi clan was wiped out generations ago,” he claimed, Natsume turning wide eyes on him instead. 

 

“Natori-san?” he utters, wondering why Natori had reacted so strongly to that name. 

 

“The Kyubi clan was an old exorcist family, perhaps even older than the Natori’s or Matoba’s, and a pretty powerful one too from the stories I've heard,” Natori explained, Kitamoto sighing as he receives looks from three very confused friends. 

 

“Yes, they were, a very, very long time ago. But they...we haven’t been exorcists for generations. The other exorcists believed is to be dead, wiped out by Yokai, but that isn’t what happened. One of my ancestors made a deal with a fox, that our clan would always be able to see and sense foxes and that each child born to the clan would have their own fox as a guardian of sorts. In return the fox took our sight, so that foxes were the only things from the other plane we could see. From there we simply faded out of existence with each new generation. My mother should have been the one to explain this all to me but she died when I was just a baby, and I learned it all from Hiei after we finally met at the Foxes Dance.” Kitamoto tells them everything, letting it all sink in as Hiei watched them with a raised eyebrow.

 

After a while Natsume finally lifted his eyes from the ground to look at Kitamoto, his eyes shifting between him and Hiei. 

 

“So you two are friends?” he questioned, Kitamoto nodding in response. 

 

“Yes. Yokai don’t have to be either enemies or servants, they can be friends to. I feel like you're one of the people who knows that the most,” Kitamoto responded genuinely, bringing a wide smile to Natsume’s lips. 

 

“Yeah, I think I do. Thank you Kitamoto,” he mumbled, a small blush on his cheeks that has Kitamoto laughing for a fair while.

 

****

  
Things are easier after that, when Kitamoto doesn’t have to hide everything. When Natsume can talk to him as well as the others. When Hiei can offer her services in both human and fox form without a second thought. Yes, things are a lot easier after that, and when Matoba comes around a second time Kitamoto doesn’t even think about it before he clicks his fingers and releases all the righteous fury of a peeved fox upon him. Hiei is plenty smug after that incident, and the Matoba clan doesn't bother them again for a while, the marks of fangs on their leader's arm warning enough to stay away. 


End file.
